Hebrew word · H2173

זִמְרָה

mizimrat

best

Elsewhere זִמְרָה means 'song, melody, music' (Isa 51:3; Amos 5:23; Ps 81:3; 98:5). Hebrew probably had more than one root spelled z-m-r. (1) 'To sing, make music'. (2) 'To prune' vines (Lev 25:3–4), which gives words for pruning knives and possibly 'pruned produce'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

choice fruits, choice products

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 43:11

Range of meaning

Elsewhere זִמְרָה means 'song, melody, music' (Isa 51:3; Amos 5:23; Ps 81:3; 98:5). Hebrew probably had more than one root spelled z-m-r. (1) 'To sing, make music'. (2) 'To prune' vines (Lev 25:3–4), which gives words for pruning knives and possibly 'pruned produce'. (3) A root linked to Ugaritic ḏmr, 'strength, protection', which many scholars see in Exod 15:2 ('Yah is my strength and my zimrah'). In Gen 43:11 the context requires something like 'choicest produce'.

Against the English

KJV and WEB: 'best/choice fruits'. BSB, NIV and NASB: 'best products'. ESV: 'choice fruits'. YLT: 'the praised thing of the land', taking the 'song' root literally. 'Fruits' is too narrow, since most of the list is resins and nuts, not fruit.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has 'from the fruits (karpōn) of the land' and the Vulgate 'from the best fruits of the land'. Both treat it as produce, not song. The Aramaic Targum Onqelos interprets it as 'what is praised in the land'. HALOT lists a separate זִמְרָה II for this verse, glossed 'choice produce'.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 43:11 מִזִּמְרַ֤ת some of [the] best products of

    Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and carry them down as a gift for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.

    Here: Found in this sense only here. Elsewhere the word means 'song' or 'melody', so it may be 'what the land is praised for', its pride. A second Hebrew root meaning 'strength' or 'choice', or a link to pruning vines, may lie behind it. Whatever the origin, it means the land's finest products. The prefix mi- means 'some of'.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.